


Begin

by sunryder



Series: Try Again [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Smallville, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Lex is a Good Dad, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 13:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2695022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunryder/pseuds/sunryder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never forget: Lex Luthor always has a plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> I was originally going to post this chapter as part of a fic fragment dump I do at the end of every year. But during editing I realized that the chunk could actually be its own chapter as part of this series. 
> 
> However, so as not to throw off my day count, I posted the artwork that goes with this chapter [HERE](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2686013/chapters/6030458) on AO3 with the fic dump, and [HERE](http://kenobisunryder.deviantart.com/art/Super-Robin-497490446) on DA if you'd prefer .

“According to what television has taught me about healthy human interaction, I should offer you some warm milk.”

Despite it being three a.m. and Tim having the dark hollows under his eyes that meant he hadn’t slept at all, the boy still managed something like a smile. “What did you drink?”

“Scotch,” Lex replied, pouring himself a tumbler. One of the things Lex liked about Tim was that the boy didn’t ask any follow up questions. A normal person would’ve bombarded Lex with questions about when he’d started drinking, and just where it was he got the alcohol, but Tim was smart enough to know the answers, and kind enough not to ask. 

“It was my suggestion that he go to the Tower.” Tim reminded Lex. He’d encouraged Kon to get back with the rest of the Titans as soon as possible to keep himself from falling under too much suspicion. It was the logical choice to make, despite Lex’s attempts to make him feel better about it.

“It being your suggestion doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to change your mind.” Instead of the milk, Lex handed Tim a mug of coffee silent support of his inability to sleep.

Lex had a way of making everything he said sound reasonable, even though every ounce of Tim’s Bat-honed senses said it wasn’t. “If Kon stays at the Tower, then he’ll be able to at least pretend that he had nothing to do with my disappearance. Everyone will know that he went dark for those few days when I went missing, but he’ll be able to say that he has no idea where I am now and they’ll accept that, because they’ll all assume that if he Kon did know, he’d be with me.”

“He’ll fail miserably at lying.”

Tim gave Lex a shadow of a smile over their coffee. “He is infuriatingly honest, isn’t he?” Given that Tim’s life was made of up lies, wrapped in half-truths, cloaked in black Kevlar, Lex imagined that Kon’s unflinching honesty was actually something Tim adored. Considering Lex’s own penchant for concealment and Clark’s belief that everyone in his life was apparently blind and stupid, Lex didn’t understand where Kon had come by his conviction in the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But despite its strangeness to him, Lex enjoyed the honesty as well. The smile on Tim’s face was the same one Lex donned when Kon came home and ranted about having to work with the Justice League, rambling off their quirks and faults like they were the annoying kids at school. Lex had tried to interrupt him once, and Kon hadn’t been able to wrap his mind around the thought that perhaps this was information Lex shouldn’t have.

“I think miserable is probably a bit too high an estimate of Kon’s ability to lie. Under normal circumstances I would assume that Kon wouldn’t even try subterfuge. He’d just keep his mouth shut through whatever torture they might devise for him, but he is rather proud of himself for getting you away from Gotham. I wouldn’t be surprised if, instead of keeping quiet like a good little superhero, he shouted at Bruce when he was getting questioned.” 

Tim smiled at the thought of a vengeful Kon shouting at the Batman like he didn’t have kryptonite on his person at all times. “Shouting means he’s going to tell them where I am, you know.”

Lex Luthor did not do something so pedestrian as snort. However, if he did, snorting would’ve been the only suitable response to that statement. If Kon lost his temper and started screaming at the Batman in front of witnesses, then Tim’s location was the least of the things he was going to reveal. Lex could only imagine how well the Teen Titans would take to finding out that Bruce had tossed over his Omega son in favor of an Alpha raised by a supervillain. And when Diana found out that her oldest ally had dishonored an Omega in such a way? Lex almost felt bad for Bruce. Lex, however, kept those thoughts to himself. “Finding out about you doesn’t mean that I’ll let him take you, Tim.”

“Lex, you can’t keep refusing to acknowledge that keeping me might be bad for you. Whether or not Bruce actually wants me back doesn’t change that I have information in my head that anyone with common sense wouldn’t want you to have. And no matter how Bruce feels about me, has always felt about me, I was still Robin. And there are people in the League who won’t want me here.”

“Then I’ll make it clear to them that you can either stay here, where perhaps they can visit you, or I can move you to a remote tropical island where they’ll never see you again.”

“I can’t just sit in your apartment and stare at the walls for the rest of my life, Lex.”

“And I can’t convince you that you’d be satisfied with being prepped to run LuthorCorp?” 

“As fascinating as I’m sure that would be,” which wasn’t a lie, Lex could see the glint in Tim’s eyes at having the weight of LuthorCorp behind him and everything he could do with the science division. “I’m a hero, even when I’m not a Bat.”

Lex gave a pained sigh that even in the most horrible of days, the people in his life were infected with this ridiculous notion that they needed to be the ones to save the world rather than leave the world to save itself. “If you insist on being stubborn about it.” Lex tapped a code into his closest tablet and the long wall of windows that doubled as his monitor brought up the image of a uniform. 

Along the edges of the screens Tim could see variations on the theme, testing out the right ratio of red to black and how close it could get to Tim’s Robin uniform before it got obvious. Others rotated through belts, and bandoliers, and pockets, seeing if perhaps something might suit Tim’s new identity better than his old. 

The one maximized in the center—the one that called to Tim on a soul deep level—was black and streamlined, save for the red Super sigil on his chest, and what Tim was almost positive was Superman’s red cape.

“I’ve had it in the works for several months. I assumed that at some point you and Kon would decide to… team up, shall we say? You’re both exceptionally stubborn, so you’d try and go on as you have been, with you protecting Gotham and Kon here in Metropolis. But it wouldn’t last.”

“Which one of us do you think would break first?” Tim asked without looking away from the screen. 

“You. It would almost kill Kon to hold himself back anytime you got in trouble, but he’s terrified of you thinking that he doesn’t respect you. But you, you would break the first time someone pulled out the kryptonite. Hopefully that would be enough to make you boys realize that you belong in the same place, fighting together. Bruce won’t let metas into his city, which means that the both of you would end up protecting Metropolis. Considering that Clark’s powers and interests have always been on a more global scale, he’d fuss for a few years, then he’d leave you both as the protectors of Metropolis while he went to the League full time.”

As much as Tim would’ve liked to say otherwise, Lex was accurate. There were other variables, of course, things that might change the path Lex had predicted for them, but they were statistically insignificant. Especially when you took into account the will of Lex Luthor in making sure that that particular pattern was the one that came about. Instead, Tim moved on to a slightly less dangerous question. “How are you going to explain the cape being too long?”

“I had hoped to hold back your reveal until some point where you could save Clark from being killed. At the end of the battle you would look unsure, like you shouldn’t have interfered, and Clark would give you his cape as a thank you, and a nice family photo-op so Metropolis could see it and coo. 

“Eventually Clark would grant Lois an interview and explain that he’s had you in training at an undisclosed location to help you get a better grip on your powers, which means Lois will ask about why you can’t seem to fly, and Clark will prevaricate for a moment and you’ll interrupt that not every Kryptonian was from the house of El.”

“Are we going to get into a discussion of Kryptonian genetics? Or something so vague as ‘everyone is different’?”

“That just summons up more questions that will make people scared of what you might pull out next. No, Clark will have to explain Krypton’s approach to the creation of children.”

“But Clark—”

“Has kept that information to himself for years at the risk of our son.” A little bitterness seeped in to Lex’s tone, which Tim could forgive since Clark’s decision had irritated him as well. “When Clark’s Kryptonian biology put no one at risk but his own family, that was their decision. But it hasn’t affected just the three of them for a long time, and I’m done letting him get away with it. Clark will explain the Kryptonian practice of genetic predestination, which will explain you both.”

“Kon’s tactile telekinesis and my not being able to fly or have super strength, speed, or hearing, as well as heat vision, freezing breath and the multiplicity of Superman’s other powers will be explained as the product of Kryptonian genetics?”

“We will explain that Kon was designed to be an engineer, hence the added dexterity provided by telekinesis. But whatever purpose Kon was created for, the House of El was known for its warriors, and latent in Kon’s genetics were all the skills that his family usually possessed, hence Kon’s ability to fly. You, however, were created to be a scientist in a long line of non-warriors. You will be explained, and we humans will be able to feel smug and superior that our own, non-determinative birthing practices are what created Superman.”

The plan sounded perfect to Tim, so perfect that he dragged his eyes away from the new uniform and watched Lex for a long moment. “I’ve been told—by Bruce, and Clark, and Diana, and half the League, and Kon, and really, everyone who has ever spoken of you—that you always have multiple different game plans with multiple different objectives, and that’s what makes outmaneuvering you almost impossible.” Lex didn’t respond, but tilted his drink in an acknowledgment that this was a common criticism. “I’ve known that it was accurate, but knowing it and seeing it are two different things.”

“I remind Kon of this whenever he gets too enthused about something I’ve done. I am not a good man. I will lie, cheat, and steal to get what I want, and I want my son to be happy.”

“And if someday I am no longer what makes him happy?”

“I cannot imagine a world where you would not by the love of my son’s life. No matter how he might lose his way in getting there.” 

“There’s room for ambiguity in that statement, Mr. Luthor.”

“I’d like to say that Kon will always be as good to you as he is today, that your lives will be full of devotion that I will always foster. But three days ago I would’ve said that you would always be a Bat. I intend to always try, and that is the most that I can promise you. Anything else would be a lie, and you know it.”

“I think you and your son are more alike than you give yourself credit for, Mr. Luthor.”


End file.
